Joss Whedon Teases ‘Death’ in ‘The Avengers 2′

Outside of it including a reunion of familiar heroic faces and a return appearance of Thanos, little is known about the story of The Avengers 2, how it will conclude “Phase Two” of the Marvel cinematic universe, or how it will lay the groundwork for Phase Three, which kicks off with Ant-Man in 2015.

In fact, we don’t even know the official title of the sequel, but we expect it not to go with the standard Iron Man style numbering scheme. What we can expect, from Joss Whedon’s vague hints, is that it’ll be darker, more personal and more emotional. And we know that that means when it comes to Whedon.

During a Q&A at the Carlton Cinema in Dublin on February 23, 2013 for the European premiere of Much Ado About Nothing, Whedon couldn’t avoid receiving at least one question about about his goals for The Avengers 2.

“When I actually considered doing Avengers 2, my first question was what can I do that’s new? Because I can’t make it bigger [audience laughs], but I can make it better, so that’s where I’m sort of going with that.”

When asked what his general philosophy is for the sequel, without getting into details, Whedon followed up with a dark voice:

“Death, death and death.”

You can listen to the raw audio here – start at 14:10 for the brief Avengers 2 snippet and listen to the roaring crowd reaction.

Looking back on Whedon’s track record, two characters didn’t survive the run length of Serenity; fan-favorite Agent Coulson took a death blow to the chest courtesy of Loki in Whedon’s first Marvel movie; and fans are still sad of Felicia Day’s demise in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (is that sequel still happening?). Even when writing Astonishing X-Men for Marvel Comics, Whedon couldn’t resist quasi-killing off a main character at the end.

It’s very likely – expected even – that some of of Marvel’s greatest heroes may meet their end in The Avengers 2, making room for new character introductions during Phase Three of the Marvel cinematic universe. Ant-Man and Dr. Strange are (officially) on the way and we’re still holding out for other introductions for characters including Black Panther.

However, there’s always a deeper meaning to be found in the jokes and teases dropped by the creative minds behind each Marvel film. And by “death,” we don’t expect Whedon to be just referring to the passing away of the likes of Captain America or Hawkeye. Even in jest, Whedon is name-dropping the character of Death, personified in the books as a cosmic creature, one who was referenced in the post-credits button in The Avengers by The Other which resulted in that now infamous Thanos grin.

Thanos loves Death and aims to prove his loyalty to her. In the comics, he even destroyed half the Marvel universe thanks to the power of The Infinity Gauntlet (An object in Odin’s vault from Thor) in an effort to earn her favor. Her name and Thanos’ reaction to hearing it at the end of The Avengers is very intentional and we’ll find out more in Guardians of the Galaxy next year, if not, sooner.

What character(s) could you see Whedon and Marvel Studios “killing off” in The Avengers 2?

Iron Man 3 releases May 3, 2013, Thor: The Dark World on November 8, 2013, Captain America: The Winter Soldier on April 4, 2014, Guardians of the Galaxy on August 1, 2014, The Avengers 2 on May 1, 2015 and Ant-Man on November 6, 2015.

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jwalka2 years ago

as if he would kill off one of the main characters from the marvel universe, something which marvel and disney look to profit from big time =.= that’s why he made the boring and pointless coulson character b/c he wanted to create ‘suspense’ without f***ing things up 😛 if they do end up killing someone, it will be one of the ‘no one cares’ heroes, like ant man or wasp and it will either tie in to a stand alone movie or avengers 3.

Whedon had yet to sign on with Marvel when Iron Man was filming in 2007. Whedon didn’t join until 2011. So no, he didn’t create the character just to kill him off because he didn’t, in fact, create the character. Man I hate you for making me defend Joss Whedon.

Yeah, it sure is. Considering Ant Man has been part of the Fantastic Four, created Ultron, and was a founding member of the Avengers. It’s insane to think Iron Man was(until recently maybe) anywhere near as important as him.

Ant-man has been around forever, and yes he’s been part of the avengers from the beginning, but Iron Man is more popular and has been for a long time. Iron man has had several long-running comics series on his own, Ant-man only has appeared in Avengers comics or other character’s stories.

Yeah, Antman is one of my favorite books (the funny ones, at least) and the movie is being directed by one of my favorite nerdy filmmakers. You don’t seem to know anything about comics and you are also clearly not up to date in MCU news.

Your views of Coulson holds no water. He is what they call a ‘breakout’ character. A background cast member who becomes a fan favorite, and who can eventually earn an emotional storyline of their own. They won’t kill Ant-Man as he will have his own movie AFTER Avengers 2. They also won’t kill the big 3 with Iron Man, Thor, or Captain because there’s too much money there. But they have no firm plans (just rumblings) for Hulk, Hawkeye, or Black Widow, so any of them could die, as well as someone from Guardians. My money is on Black Widow.

When speculating over whether Nick Fury will be killed off, or replaced, consider this; I remember reading once that Samuel L Jackson had signed a 9 picture deal with Marvel. Considering he has appeared in 5 movies so far it is possible that Avengers 2 be his last, unless his contract is renewed.

Like the way this thread is going but I think y’all need to look at an Asgard connection. Thanos used Loki and the cube so he could get a connection to Asgard and Odins vault. He wants that glove. He finally gets the glove and all hell breaks loose the heroes are having a rough time and it all looks bleak until…………..Odin arrives and battles Thanos. Everything is restored and the universe saved but in using all his power odin pays the ultimate price. He has used all the Odin force and not had a chance to replenish his power with the Odin sleep.

I’m betting that Thanos KNEW Loki would be defeated and taken back to Asgard. Loki will be turning a new leaf in Thor 2, helping out his brother, but I’ll bet Thanos somehow takes control of him or otherwise coerces him into letting Thanos’ forces into Asgard.

He doesn’t want just the cube… The path that Wheddon has chosen, is as if Thanos already knows about death. He wants to prove his dominance, and the cube is on earth. Easier to achieve than breaking into Odin’s Vault. B/c at the time Loki isn’t nowhere to be found by Thor, Odin, or even Heimdell. I am almost positive that Thanos had possesion of the mind gem and was allowing Loki to use it. All the infinity gems can be entrusted with hidden locks i guess. He can allow him to use it, but he wouldn’t be able to use it against Thanos. The cube was just easier to acquire than the rest of the treasures.

SOOOOOO, heres a thought- In captain american 2, cross bones and the winter soldier will be introduced. Great right? In the comics after they rid Bucky of his Soviet holds, he becomes friends with the Avengers, and Captain America once more. Cross bones then shoots and kills Steve Roger, although revived, and Bucky takes the helm as the new Cap. Sure, they would be killing off Chris evans( great job btw) but it would bring in a new character and create quite an amazing ending for the avengers two. Also Nick fury retires, or dies I forget which and a revived steve rogers becomes the leader of shield. That would be awesom and great way to start phase 3

The cosmic Cube, Infinity Gauntlet storys had key Marvel characters that were not “Avengers, X-Men and Fantastic Four, Adam Warlock, Captain Mar-vel were key to the defeat of Thanos. At some point if possible, it would be nice to see atleast one of those 2 Heroes in the movie.

Honestly, I’m gonna go ahead and say that not only will we see a hint at Death the character, we’ll also see major death thanks to whoever the big bad is (still don’t think Thanos will actually fight until Avengers 3) and a major supporting character will be killed off, giving someone on the team motivation to do their own thing until returning for Avengers 3 when the team really needs him.

Just a thought: why bring in Thanos in Avengers 2 and not use him as the big baddie? I mean, who else is there? Using Loki again would be dumb because he’s already been used already in the first Avengers as the main villain. That’s one thing I hate about comic book movies: some of the franchises reuse characters. There’s been talk about using Green Goblin again for The Amazing Spider-Man movies. I’ve also read that Venom could make a return as well. And DC has used villians many times over: Lex Luthor, Bane, The Joker, Catwoman. Out of all the baddies these two companies have, why reuse some of them instead of having new villians for each movie? That’s just dumb.

I feel like Iron Man will probably die at some point. I feel like for two reasons. #1 Being that it would be a very gutsy move, and #2 it would be the best way to end his story arc. To see Tony transform from selfish playboy to the hero who dies to save all of humanity would be incredible!

I can see Hulk sacrificing himself to save the other Avengers, and then he ends up on an alien planet like Planet Hulk. This would lead to the next Hulk movie since they were going with Planet Hulk storyline

Yup, that plays. End of Avengers 2, Hulk into space, make it SHIELD not the Illuminati that send him off into deep space instead of returning to Earth.

You get one (or two) Planet Hulk fims in between Avengers 2 and 3, Thanos defeated at the end of 3 then you move in to World War Hulk.

Whedon said on his commentary that he would of loved more Hulk but it was too expensive. In about 8-10years when Avengers 3 has been released the CG tech will be much better (how awesome can it get???) and cheaper so the full scale madness that is WWH will be more acheivible.

I think Marvel can turn The Avengers into a never ending franchise. The Avengers universe is huge. You have your West Coast Avengers, Great Lakes Avengers, New Avengers, Secret Avengers & even Young Avengers. The possibilities are endless.

Cmon guys marvel wont kill Stark thor or cap till the avengers 3 since they are all hired for 6 movies as their respective roles

Now the hulk is a very different story. Because all of the ruffalo/norton scandle mark ruffalo doesnt have his 6 movies secured. Maybe thanos kills him in the avengers 2 because who else can kill the hulk?? And ruffalo already stated that whedon had “interesting” plans for hulk

And i think cpt america should bite the dust but in the avengers 3 in the end of the final battle But the battle should start with cap and ironman fighting solo against the masters of evil, then tony gets knocked out and so does cap, and then he rises and as he rises he shouts AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!! And everybody else arrives and there’s an epic battle and by the end there’e a shot of heimdall talking to loky and he says ” I once had a dream, a vision of the future, qnd there was a voice and it told me something, it told me something about a new hope, about a shining light, about a brand new future” and loki asks “what did it said?” And as there’s a shot of everybody fighting their fears and giving all that theyve got heimdall says ” and there came a day… A day unlike any other … When earthsmightiest heroes found themselves united against a common thread… To fight the foes no single superheroe could withstand… On that day …” (Theres a fight of captain america against zemo where cap defeats him and saves everybody but not without recieveng a big wound before)”The avengers were born”

And at the end theres everybody at caps funeral and thir asks stark looking at caps dead body “what did he meant by assemble ” and stark answers “he meant that we had become something , not a team, but something bigger, he wanted us … to assemble”

Well Thanos is a good possbility because he is Death itself but long term too many characters in one movie is just too much to take in. So I would look for one to go in AV2 probably Cap or Hawkeye. Have to remember that RDJ contract ends with AV2 and I’m sure we all dont want to see anyone else play Iron Man but have to wait and see. Chances of seeing Hulk going to another universe is a possbility if they make a solo of Hulk and do Planet Hulk movie to tie back in with Guardians.

its obvious who will die in the avengers 2 , it captain america , as the marvel comic’s go, it the winter soldier who replace’s steve rodgers persona as captain america. Caps death will be one of the closing scenes on avengers 2. Other Deaths will be minor but kept close to whedons chest .

I personally think even tho ill get a big NOOO for this but they really should consider spiderman for this movie hes really really popular and that would be new, and yes i know sony wud want a slice of that cheese but with all the admissions that wud love to see that i think at that point the cheese wud be be more then what theyd expect to get

Sony would never want just a slice. They won’t do the deal you’re proposing because they’d want all the creative control and income, so they would only do their own movies. I understand wanting all marvel character films to be done by Marvel themselves but it’s not going to happen until Fox and Sony start losing money on them & Marvel Studios makes a strong bid.